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 8:7
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Exorcizing a Personal Demon
Through Personal Letters, A Woman's Scorn
Turns to Admiration
Imagine growing up and constantly being compared to someone famous, dead or
alive. Someone whose perpetually cheerful, never complaining,
triumphing-over-adversity demeanor seemed so high, it appeared impossible to
achieve. Now imagine writing a letter to that person telling them how much you
hated them because of the constant comparisons. What would you say? How would
you feel? Georgina Kleege, author of
Blind Rage:
Letters to Helen Keller, did just that.
“Dear Helen Keller,” Kleege begins, “Allow me to introduce myself. I am a writer
and part-time English professor. I am American, married, middle-aged, middle
class. Like you, I am blind, though not deaf. But the most important thing you
need to know about me, and the reason for my letter, is that I grew up hating
you. Sorry to be so blunt, especially on such short acquaintance, but one of the
advantages of writing to a dead person is there’s no need to stand on ceremony.
And you should know the truth from the start. I hated you because you were
always held up to me as a role model, and one who set such an impossibly high
standard of cheerfulness in the face of adversity. ‘Why can’t you be more like
Helen Keller?’ people always said to me. Or that’s what it felt like whenever
your name came up. ‘Count your blessings,’ they told me. ‘Yes, you’re blind, but
poor little Helen Keller was blind and deaf, and no one ever heard her
complain.’”
Most people revered Helen Keller as a symbol of human fortitude in the face of
adversity. Contrarily, for Georgina Kleege, Keller always represented an example
she could not hope to emulate, in turn, causing Kleege to resent her. In
Blind Rage, Kleege employs the use of personal letters to delve beneath the
surface of this seemingly happy-go-lucky demeanor and, in the end, comes to
appreciate the true Helen Keller.
Read an excerpt from part one, and
order Blind Rage online. You will receive 20% off the regular price
by typing “JULY0620%” in the “Comments or Special
Instructions” box below your credit card information. You may also order by
mail.
 Kudos
goes to the remarkable
team of native ASL signers, linguists, and editors who worked for more than six years to
create The
Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language. In its latest issue,
Library Journal
exclaims: “For
beginning signers, this book and DVD set is an excellent resource to help
practice signs and expand vocabulary. For advanced signers, others in the deaf
community, and anyone interested in American Sign Language (ASL), this is an
excellent vocabulary reference book. For libraries, public and academic alike,
this is an essential acquisition.”
Wisconsin Bookwatch, the
library newsletter from The Midwest Book Review, chimes in with:
“The Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language is a straightforward
and practical reference. Consisting of 3,000 entries, The Gallaudet
Dictionary of American Sign Language includes a simple black-and-white
diagram for signing each word, as well as an index and a full-color DVD
featuring a diverse group of native ASL signers demonstrating the words. An
introduction walking readers through the basics of ASL rounds out this superb
and definitive reference.”
View select
illustrations, and
order your copy today.
 Hannah
Joyner’s From
Pity to Pride: Growing Up Deaf in the Old South received
recognition in The
Journal of American History: “In From Pity
to Pride, the historian Hannah Joyner offers a carefully considered and
well-documented study that centers on the education and coming of age of several
prominent white Deaf men in the antebellum South. This sophisticated study will
be appreciated by general readers and respected by scholars with interests in
education, sign language, family history, and the ascension of a national Deaf
community.” In addition,
The Journal of
Southern History sums up Joyner’s unique and fascinating account by stating,
“We need to build on useful monographs such as this one to explain the
historically specific instructions of the meaning of deafness and, more broadly,
disability.” In From Pity to Pride, Hannah Joyner depicts in striking
detail the circumstances of those who were called “victims” of a “terrible
misfortune” while also making it clear that Deaf people in the North endured
prejudice, too. She explains how the cultural rhetoric of paternalism and
dependency in the South codified a stringent system of oppression and hierarchy
that left little room for self-determination for Deaf southerners. Read more in
chapter seven,
“With the Eyes to Hear and the Hands to Speak”, and
order From Pity to Pride.
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